Miami Tunes In To Regional Mexican Station

La Raza will take over the 106.3 FM frequency, which at one point belonged to La Gran Cadena. The station belongs to the SBS network, which already owns pop station WRMA, Romance (106.7 FM) and tropical station WXDJ, El Zol 95.7 in Miami.

The launch of La Raza marks the second regional Mexican station to open in a major East Coast market this year, and is a testament not just to the growth of Mexican population in the United States, but also to its expansion from its traditional West Coast and MidWest base.

In February, Univision Radio launched WZAA-FM (La Qué Buena), in New York City.

The Miami, Fort Lauderdale area, which would be reached by La Raza's signal, comprises the 12th largest radio market in the nation, according to Arbitron, with a population of 3.5 million, of which 1.6 million, or 45% of the total, is Hispanic.

The vast majority, some 880,000, are Cubans, according to 2007 data provided by Geoscape.

Although Geoscape calculated the Mexican population at slightly over 100,000, that number is probably much higher if one counts new Mexican population bastions like Homestead and Florida City, which would also be reached by La Raza.